Oh my goodness. Between facebook, travel and everyday life it seems I’ve completely abandoned my blog. I’ve never gone 2 months without posting before nor have I ever not posted about major vacations out of the Country. Talk about slacking. I like to look back on my blog to see what’s happened in the past so I’m going to fill in posts about Aruba and Panama as I get time. In the mean time I’m going to start posting again. Let’s start with last weekend.

Last weekend we had an insane little party with some close friends. To describe it as wild and fun would be a drastic understatement.

Kyle & Tyler on the back with Morgan, Krissa and I on the golf kart. We’ve fit more people and gear on the golf cart then I have in my car. Zippy jumped on after she took the picture. hehe.

Zippy and Morgan made some Jungle Juice based on everclear (and a ton of other liquors) and lots of fruit which blended well with swimming all day, then all night. My grandma n’ grandpa have a big floodlight on their dock which let us hang out in the water until 5.30am. lol. Not counting the day prior, it was a 17 hour party. Needless to say everyone woke up the next afternoon sore. ^_^

I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Spring/Summer is freakin here! I love it.

Plants!
I’ve never had much of a green thumb but I’m making an effort to change that this year. With the help of mother nature I have succeeded in starting lots of tomatoes, sunflowers, radishes and watermelons. I started them all inside and finally relocated the last seedlings to their nicely tilled garden. I intend on keeping this “sprout indoors, relocate outside” pattern going in to june. By the end of summer we should have more vegetables then we know what to do with.

Animals
At this point I’m pretty sure our little plot of land qualifies as a hobby farm. I haven’t looked into it but with the addition of hogs and production chickens to our already large list of animals, it’s nothing short of a hobby. We house 3 hogs for the summer which will be butchered in the fall. We’ll most likely keep that cycle going if it’s no more difficult then just feeding them as we have. We also have 11 chicks. We expect to have 6 left after we get rid of the males. We won’t be keeping a rooster. Our 6 laying hens will hopefully provide us with some fresh eggs but as of right now they are still under a heat lamp. Our 6 ferrets are doing great, the 2 horses are looking great (they are still across the street at the Santos’) and the dogs n’ cats are still healthy. Monster (white male cat) looks like he has something wrong with his eyes. If it doesn’t get better we’ll bring em to the vet.

The lake
We got a new canoe! I missed silently gliding through the water on a canoe. Now we just have to get out and trap/kill/shoot some huge snapping turtles and otters. The old heads that live around me keep telling me I need to get out there and see what I can do about bringing back the fish population otherwise it’s just going to keep getting worse. (Note: I’ve been swimming 4 times already this year. It’s great!)

The land
I’m really excited to say that Zippy and I will have all our land/lots paid off by the end of 2009 (early 2010). When we first set out to live in rural Missouri we only had a small 4 acre lot which we intended to build a house on. Rather then doing that we sought out and purchased all the available land touching what we already owned. It’s not a whole lot more but now we are working with over 11 acres. Zippy and I just finished putting up a nice electric fence for the horses on half of it which extends the previous fence zippy put up initially. All in all we are really utilizing every bit of land we have. It’s great and the outlook is only getting better. We will be able to finally build a proper house how we want it on our already established property.

Paddle found his way to me! Unfortunately he got burried in the inbox and missed his flight home so he’s going to continue traveling! Paddle was sent from Kayla Houghtelin to Byron Houghtelin, Matthew, Crystla, Liam, then Ginger & Myself and now on to Phoenix & Blayne! Keep Paddle going!

Here is Paddle in Clinton, Missouri working with the election equipment used in the last Presidential Election.

If you receive “Paddle” in the mail. Take a picture of him in a setting unique to your area and put it on the map below. Then send Paddle to someone else who will keep him going! Thanks! Blayne & Phoenix, your next.

Friday, March 27th I had the privilege of marrying two of my good friends. Rowdy (Garlnd) & Theresa had asked me to be the Minister of their wedding last year when they started planning it. I’ve been able to wed people since 2007 but I hadn’t ever exercised the ability to do so. It was really fun. I had a great time and according to what everyone had to say I did a great job. I know Rowdy & Theresa really enjoyed it. I’m really glad I had the opportunity to help them have a great wedding. Zippy was the photographer. Everyone is ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the first batch of pictures she released. When she’s done perfecting the rest of the photos I’ll have more to post.

Zippy and I really enjoyed helping them setup, prepare and execute their wedding!

I do believe I am thoroughly addicted to Colorado. I love the weather, the people, places, activities, and services.

Two weeks ago Zippy and I packed up all our gear nicely in the back of the truck along with 1/4 cord of wood, covered it with a tarp, a cargo net and left for Lyssa’s house. This time we didn’t go alone. We brought Lyssa with four of her Wolf hybrid puppies with. I’m not a huge fan of wolf mix dogs but Lyssa’s Wolf/Malamute puppies were really nice to travel with. And of course being puppies they were fun to play with and cute as they come.

Yoda ^_^

We stopped a lot but it was a comfortable trip across Kansas with the pups. We dropped Lyssa off at Jalva’s in Como Colorado n’ swung back over to my brother Matt’s house in Fountain. We scheduled this trip to coincide with Matt’s 2 week leave from Iraq since last time we came out he was over seas. After partying with Matt, Crystal, Amber, Liam and my Dad celebrating Liam’s birthday at Matt’s house for the weekend Zippy and I headed for the Mountains.

Without a doubt one of my favorite places in America is the Frisco/Silverthorn/Dillon area of Colorado. It’s a huge tourist attraction but I wouldn’t mind finding my way out there and not coming back. We spent most of Sunday hanging out with the locals and meeting new people. We partied until long after closing time with the Mexicans at El Toreo in Frisco before crashing out.

Monday was our first day to hit the slopes which worked great with Matt’s schedule so Matt, Crystal, Amber, Liam, Zippy and I all met at Cooper Mountain Ski resort for beers and skiing! I had already been snowboarding by the time Matt and company cought up with us so I quickly got Matt strapped up in my extra snowboard and we hit the lifts. Sadly, I thought we were on a different lift so Matt went down a couple miles of intermediate (blue) areas his first time on a snowboard. After once down we went back to the bar for some liquid courage while Amber, Crystal and Zippy went snowboarding in the practice area / bunny hill. Mountains can be a pretty wild place to learn to snowboard if you don’t take lessons. I’m a great snowboarder but not so great a teacher.

After our first day of fun came to an end and we pulled some little ricer race car out of the Cooper parking lot since it was snowing most of the day, Matt went home and Zippy and I headed off to find some more good local hot spots to entertain ourselves the rest of the evening.

We actually wanted to do some winter camping but most all of the appropriated camping sights in Colorado seem to close in the Winter. This however didn’t stop us. We camped most of the time and signed up for Silverthorne’s recreation center for showers and other amenities. The recreation center in Silverthorne is off the charts with Olympic sized swimming pools, indoor and outdoor hot tubs, Yoga, Gymnastics, and just about everything else you could think a recreation center would offer. It was great. We only stayed in a hotel one night because we wanted a jacuzzi and balcony to facilitate being lazy for a full day.

We spent a day at the Breckenridge ski resort trying out a bunch of their runs that weren’t open the last time we were there. They have a green run that travels 5 miles! Talk about a perfect leisurely trek down a mountain with killer views.

Now for the drum role. VAIL! Vail isn’t just a fluffy name like I previously thought. Vail is without a doubt some of the best snowboarding I have experienced. They have true 360 degree skiing. You can take lifts up and practically get lost coming back down and I’m not sure if it was just a lack of aggressive skiiers but nobody had touched any of the wooded area and the glades in between them. I spent a LOT of my first day in Vail crushing perfect powder.

This is one of my trails through the trees. A picture of perfection.

Untouched.

Zippy dodging trees w/me.

Vail was so awesome that we went back for another day. The second day however Zippy learned to snowboard! We went and bought her some boots and she learned to snowboard in Vail! I have two snowboards but I think Zippy is going to claim the orange one. hehe. She got good quick. I spent the second day in Vail testing my bone strength tearing up black diamonds and double blacks. I however learned one extremely valuable lesson. EVERYONE wants to go down black diamonds and doubles but they go down sideways! They plow snow which turns the hard trails into sheets of ice. I learned the hard way by taking two single blacks straight on. I was in rhythm with the moguls and hauling ass. I would launch off the lips that provided as barriers of blue n’ green trails going across the blacks and land quite a ways down the next black aggressively handling them until I launched off the guard lip to a double black. I cought quite a bit of air before hitting nothing but plowed ice from previous people going down the hill sideways. My board wouldn’t cut into the ice so I hit the ground pretty quick and tumbled half way down the steep hill. I didn’t really feel the damage since my body was buzzing with adrenaline from eating up two blacks prior to falling. It’s an unexplainable rush cutting through moguls, trees, and taking huge air jumps in to black terrain.

It was a perfect last day on the slopes. I will be going back soon.